Top Header Banner Widget

connect

connect

call the show

call the show

1.855.99.DRJOY37569

listen now

listen now

live show12-3 pm et

podcast

home page middle banner

Backwards

Friday, December 09 th, 2016 at 00:12 am

Backwards

JOY REVIEW

Backwards is very timely if you’re watching the Olympics right now. If you’re not, well, at some point you probably will be. The plot centers around a young woman who’s not very young anymore – she’s 30. Her closest to Olympic gold was that she got to be an alternate on the team. In the early minutes of the movie, she gets offered the alternate position again and decides ‘I’ve had enough of this’ and storms off and goes home to her mother who’s the wonderful Margaret Colin. Turns out that even though Margaret is trying to get her fixed up with a job, she decides to go and visit her old boyfriend who’s played by James Van Der Beek, who is the coach at the school that she used to be a rower at. He gives her a job as a coach and she is not very popular because she pushes her kids too hard like they’re training for the Olympics. This is an interesting story, I suppose, partially because of the sacrifices that Olympians have to make. It’s also a cool story in that the mom, whom I suppose is supposed to be the villain in the piece, says “you can pursue your dreams any way you want, you’re a grown-up, but not under this roof. I’ve sacrificed for the last 30 years, I’m not going to do four more. So if you want to do it, pay your own way,” which I thought was a perfectly reasonable position. I think she was supposed to be the bad guy. The romantic part you don’t care hugely about and the end is completely unrealistic. If you had a choice between being on the Olympic team or coaching some kids, which would you choose. Mmhmm, exactly. But in terms of giving you some insight into rigors of training, I think it’s probably a good birds-eye view. Three stars